He cursed me because I had been a party to the affair. The
only person whom he spared was the Sheik; who after all was as much
implicated as we were, but he never once mentioned him. He refused to
see his father, refused to recognise that he was his father, and he
left the house that afternoon and Paris that night, going straight back
to the desert, taking with him Gaston, who had arranged some time
before to enter his service as soon as his time in the cavalry was up.
A letter that Lord Glencaryll wrote to him, addressed to Viscount
Caryll, which is, of course, his courtesy title, begging for at least
an interview, and which he gave to us to forward, was returned
unopened, and scrawled across the envelope: 'Inconnu. Ahmed Ben
Hassan.' And since that day his hatred of the English had been a
monomania, and he has never spoken a word of English. Later on, when we
used to travel together, his obvious avoidance of English people was at
times both awkward and embarrassing, and I have often had to go through
the farce of translating into French or Arabic remarks made to him by
English fellow-travellers, that is, when he condescended to notice the
remarks, which was not often. From the day he learned the truth about
himself for two years we saw nothing of him. Then the old Sheik asked
us to visit him.
We went with some misgivings as to what Ahmed's
reception of us would be, but he met us as if nothing had happened. He
ignored the whole episode and has never referred to it. It is a closed
incident. The Sheik warned us that Ahmed had told him that any
reference to it would mean the breaking off of all relations with us.
But Ahmed himself had changed indescribably. All the lovable qualities
that had made him so popular in Paris were gone, and he had become the
cruel, merciless man he has been ever since. The only love left in him
was given to his adopted father, whom he worshipped. Later I was
allowed back on the old footing, and he has always been good to Gaston,
but with those three exceptions he has spared nobody and nothing. He is
my friend, I love him, and I am not telling you more than you know
already."
Saint Hubert broke off and looked anxiously at Diana, but she did not
move or meet his gaze. She was sitting with her hand still clasped over
the Sheik's and the other one shading her face, and the Vicomte went on
speaking: "It is so easy to judge, so difficult to understand another
person's temptations. Ahmed's position has always been a curious one.
He has had unique temptations with always the means of gratifying
them."